A day after the Maharashtra government announced quota for Muslims and Marathas, Union Minister for Minority Affairs Najma Heptulla lashed out at the Congress for “making a fool of Muslims by making impossible promises”. She refused to comment on quota for Marathas.

“The decision to give reservation to Muslims makes a fool of the community because the country runs on a Constitution and that Constitution does not allow religion-based reservation. It is a tried and tested gimmick of the Congress. They tried to do it once before in Anadhra Pradesh and the matter got stuck in courts. They are fully aware this will never fructify because somebody will go to court again, yet they have taken the same path. They do not learn their lessons but Muslims have now seen through this. They will not be fooled,” she said.

She added the BJP manifesto had for this very reason taken care not to make community-specific promises but had forwarded an agenda of development for all. “We did that because we do not believe in impossible promises, our politics is about delivering what we promise,” she said.

Asked about the quota for Marathas, she said: “My ministry’s mandate is to deal with minority issues, so I can only talk about them.”